Let Us Help You Have a Successful and Legal Adoption
Adopting a child should be an exciting experience. It certainly will be once the child is with your family and once you complete all the paperwork and work through all of the red tape that can accompany this process. Unfortunately, it sometimes can feel like the hassles associated with the adoption process in Texas are never-ending.
At Amsberry Law Firm, we regularly hear stories from our clients about the difficulties they had with a child adoption before they hired us. Our San Antonio adoption lawyer will do everything we can to alleviate the difficulties associated with adoption. We devote a significant portion of our time and effort in our adoption attorney practice to focusing on adoption processes and on the laws in the state, always working to make the process as smooth as possible for you.
Hiring Our Adoption Lawyer Lets You Focus on Your Family
We know that adopting a child involves more than just filling out paperwork and attempting to meet all of the legal requirements. Trust us to take care of the legal processes associated with your adoption. You then can focus on preparing your home and your family for the welcoming of the newly adopted child. For help with your adoption case, call our San Antonio adoption lawyer today at (210) 354-2244.
How Our Adoption Attorney in San Antonio Will Help With Your Case
Ideally, the adoption process would be an easy one, where the child could join the new family quickly, without multiple legal hurdles. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Our family law attorney can help you follow every step required along the way to have a successful adoption process. At Amsberry Law Firm, we will always fight hard to help with your adoption. We can help your case in multiple ways.
Our San Antonio Adoption Lawyer Will Help With the Preliminary Work
Every adoption must start with certain decisions on your part. When you have our San Antonio adoption lawyer on your side, we are able to walk you through the preliminary decisions you should make before starting the process of adopting a child, which can include:
- Open vs. closed adoption: You will need to determine whether you want an open or closed adoption process. In a closed adoption, the birth parents will remain anonymous, while an open adoption includes the ability to know the identities of everyone involved. Sometimes, the birth parent or parents will even have involvement in the day-to-day life of the child in an open adoption.
- Working with an agency: An adoption agency is an option for those who would like to adopt a child. Our team can help you decide if this is the best option for your needs, and we may even be able to help you find an agency.
- Age of the child: Some people only want to adopt a newborn, while others want to adopt an older child. Some people are open to adopting a child of any age. You should really give this aspect of your potential adoption quite a bit of thought, and we can help you work through the pros and cons of adopting children of varying ages.
- Performing an independent adoption: If you would like to undertake an independent adoption, you may not think you need the help of an attorney. However, even this type of adoption can hit some roadblocks or other unexpected issues, and our team will be ready to help you.
Count on Our Adoption Attorney to Make Sure We Follow All Texas Laws
If your adoption process has some challenging legal aspects to it, our team can make the process run smoother. If you are struggling to provide the supporting documents that show you are following all state laws for the adoption, we will be ready to help. Some of these laws spelled out in Texas Family Code Title 5, Chapter 162, include:
- Your age: You must be a legal adult to be able to adopt someone. According to the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange, you must be at least 21 years old to adopt a child. However, exceptions to this rule are possible, and we may be able to help you with this process before you reach age 21.
- Marital status: You do not need to be in a legal marriage to be able to adopt a child. However, if you are legally married, you and your spouse must perform the adoption process together. Same-sex married couples may adopt children in Texas, but you must both go through the process.
- Divorcing status: If you and your spouse are divorcing, but you want to adopt a child, you will have to wait until the divorce becomes finalized before you will be able to adopt the child on your own. As long as your marriage is still in place, you cannot move to adopt a child by yourself.
Our San Antonio Adoption Lawyer Can Help With a Texas DFPS Adoption
When you are attempting to adopt a child through the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), you will have to follow a few different steps than you’ll follow in a private adoption. Case workers from DFPS will visit your home and ask you questions to determine whether you are a suitable candidate for adoption. We can help you create documents and plans that you can present to DFPS to show the reasons why you are a strong candidate to give a child a home.
Our Team Can Represent You in a Court Hearing
Should your adoption process require you to appear in court, it can be an intimidating process. You certainly don’t want to make a mistake in an official court hearing that could place your adoption in jeopardy. Our San Antonio adoption lawyer will stand by your side throughout the court proceedings. Trust that we will work hard to protect your rights as the adopter, and we will make sure the child’s rights remain protected as well.
Our Adoption Attorney in San Antonio Will Stand by Your Side From Start to Finish
We know that adoptions sometimes can seem to take far longer than they should. However, you can trust that our adoption lawyer will keep things moving forward, fighting to keep the delays at a minimum. Sometimes, there is little we can do to speed up the adoption process. Certain steps simply must occur in order to give you the best chance at a successful outcome.
To help your case move along as quickly as possible, we can make sure no errors occur in paperwork or in procedural matters. Such errors can create a significant delay in the adoption process, leaving you frustrated. When you hire our adoption lawyer to help you from the beginning, we can make sure you have full preparation for every aspect of your adoption. Through our preparation, we will make sure that any delays are not a result of something on our end. If you are ready to seek legal help with your adoption proceedings, call our San Antonio adoption lawyer at (210) 354-2244 today.
Common Questions for Our San Antonio Adoption Lawyer
One thing our adoption attorney takes pride in is our responsiveness to our clients. We understand the nerves that can accompany an adoption situation, as well as the frustrations over any delays. We hope that we can help you through the rough patches with our professional level of representation and with our quick responsiveness to any questions you may have. To help you gain an understanding of how we will represent you and how we will handle certain aspects of your case, here are answers to some of the most common questions our clients have for us.
Will anything automatically disqualify me from having a successful adoption?
If you have a felony conviction on your criminal record, this could leave you unable to successfully complete an adoption. Anyone who has crimes against children as part of a criminal record also may be unable to adopt. If a background check on you indicates a potential risk to the child, you could receive a denial on your request to adopt. Our adoption attorney in San Antonio can attempt to help you in some situations like this, but it will be challenging.
How long will the adoption process take?
It is difficult for our San Antonio adoption lawyer to give you an exact time frame in which your adoption will finish, because each case has its own nuances and requirements. On average, a private adoption can require nine to 12 months, while an adoption through the foster care system could take six to 12 months. Some cases go faster, while others can take longer.
If I remarry after my divorce, can my new spouse adopt my kids?
If a stepparent wants to adopt his or her spouse’s children from another marriage, the other parent will need to give up his or her parental rights. This termination of parental rights is a legal process that leaves your ex-spouse without rights. Your ex-spouse can give up these rights voluntarily, or, in certain circumstances, you may be able to receive a court ruling that orders the termination of parental rights. During this process, you will maintain your parental rights. Our child visitation lawyer can walk you through the process of figuring out how the termination of the parental rights process for your ex-spouse will work, and we then can help with the adoption process as well.
What is the difference between legal guardianship and adoption in Texas?
From the point of view of the child, guardianship and adoption both help to provide the child with a stable living environment, which is extremely important. However, from a legal standpoint, guardianship and adoption are very different. Use of guardianship is recommended when the child’s living situation will be temporary. Guardianship works well when the child’s parents have a temporary situation where they cannot provide the proper care for the child, but they will be able to provide care successfully in the future. Adoption is a permanent process, where the adoptive parents receive all legal parenting rights, and the biological parents have a termination of their legal parenting rights. Our guardianship lawyer can help you with all aspects of this process, including providing advice on whether you should consider adoption instead of guardianship.
Amsberry Law Firm Is Always Going to Have Your Family’s Best Interests in Mind
One of the best pieces of advice we can give to families looking to adopt is to make sure to prepare for the adoption process as much as possible. Our adoption attorney in San Antonio can help you from the planning process until the time you can officially welcome the newly adopted child into your family. The earlier you hire our team to help you, the smoother we can attempt to make the adoption process.
Should we run into red tape or unexpected circumstances during the adoption, our team can work through those roadblocks. This gives you more time to focus on the ultimate outcome of the successful adoption. We want to remove as much stress from the adoption process as we can for you. For a discussion of your case, call our San Antonio adoption lawyer at (210) 354-2244 as soon as possible. Once you choose to hire us, we will be ready to begin working on your case immediately.
Attorney Russell J.G. Amsberry
Attorney Russell J.G. Amsberry founded the Amsberry Law Firm in 1995 with the goal of providing clients with exceptional, focused representation on their issues. His success as a legal advocate has been reflected in the numerous professional honors he has received, such as speaking engagements and inclusion in Scene in SA magazine’s listing of the best lawyers in San Antonio, a Distinguished rating from Martindale-Hubble, and an amazing rating from Avvo. [ Attorney Bio ]
